Jungle Scout Review: A World Class Product Research Tool for Amazon Sellers with Bonus Step by Step Tutorials

To say that you need every competitive advantage possible is an understatement.

Fortunately, there are tools like Jungle Scout that give their users an unfair advantage over their competitors.

In this article I am going to show you why Jungle Scout is the premier tool for sellers looking to grow their businesses on Amazon. I'll also show you exactly how it works, why it works and who it is best suited for it.

What People Are Saying about Jungle Scout

Now, I get a commission if you purchase Jungle Scout through my affiliate link on this blog post, so if you don't want to take my word for how great Jungle Scout is, that's ok. Let me share what some of the most respected companies in the world have said about Jungle Scout.

Companies who DON'T earn a commission or have any vested interest in whether or not you buy Jungle Scout.

"The best resource for data-driven product research..."

"Helped thousands of Amazon entrepreneurs avoid failure...”

“The most helpful Amazon software in the space...”

"Handles the heavy lifting on big data analytics...”

It doesn't get much more legit than that.

Now that I hopefully have your attention, let's get into why Jungle Scout earned such amazing praise from these publications.

I will go step by step through the 4 core softwares within the Jungle Scout suite.

The Two Amazon Product Sourcing Methods

There are just two ways to find products to sell on Amazon.

Jungle scout supports both methods. In the diagrams below, you will see the process flow as each method relates to Jungle Scout.

Note: In the diagrams, the icon with the t-shirt represents a profitable product. The little cartoon with the forklift represents your wholesale supplier and the warehouse blowing noxious pollutants into the ozone is your overseas manufacturer (let's be honest, it'll be overseas).

Sourcing Method #1: Finding product opportunities (with a tool like Jungle Scout or manually) and then finding suppliers of the product or manufacturers who can make a competitor.

This process is often called, "reverse sourcing." This is the method most conducive to Jungle Scout. With this approach we find products that are already performing well and then see if we can find suppliers to provide us with the exact products OR manufacturers who can help create competitors. We can try to get a share of the buy box on the exact product or create our own opportunities with our own branded items that would serve as alternatives to the products that are already on the market and selling well. Wholesalers prefer the former and private label sellers favor the latter.

Sourcing Method #2: Starting with the products you have access to and analyzing if they have potential for profit (with tools like Jungle Scout or manual research).

This is the most common type of product sourcing. Wholesalers generally have a massive list of UPCs or ASINs that they can purchase. These manifests include information like pricing and minimum order requirements.

Although Jungle Scout is ideal for the "reverse sourcing" approach, it caters to both of the above methods.

You can research the ASINs that you already have access to and see how they are performing on Amazon or you can analyze all of the products on Amazon and see which ones have the potential to make money if you can land a supplier for them.

Inside the Jungle Scout Web Software

We will get to the Jungle Scout Google Chrome extension next, first, let's talk about about features are unlocked within the JungleScout.com user dashboard.

Note: Not every feature is included with each plan. There are different options and you don't need to buy the entire suite if you don't like. I will cover Jungle Scout pricing more towards the end of the article.

The Jungle Scout Product Tracker

The Jungle Scout product tracker allows you to monitor a number of products on Amazon over any amount of time.

Why does this matter?

By seeing which products are performing and underperforming, you can better decide if they are worth competing against.

You can track...

Your direct competitors

People selling a product you are considering selling in the future.

To get started, you will paste the Amazon product ASIN or URL into the search bar at the top of the page.

After pasting a URL, you will choose your marketplace.

The marketplaces currently supported by Jungle Scout are USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, India, Italy, Mexico and the UK.

Once you have pasted your product ASIN or URL and chosen your marketplace, click "Add to Tracker."

After adding a product, you will need to wait 48 hours for Jungle Scout to propagate your data.

Once your ASIN has been given time to provide data, you will see something that looks like this...

You might feel like you're drinking from a fire hose at first. Don't. The data makes a lot of sense once you understand what you're looking at.

The Jungle Scout product tracker will provide you with the following.

A histogram showing estimated sales, sales rank. inventory on hand and pricing data each day over a 7, 14, 30 or 60 day timeline

Product category

Estimated fees

Net profit (this data doesn't include the cost of goods as that isn't data known by anyone but the seller)

Seller name

Number of sellers

Number of reviews

Average rating

Product dimensions and weight

So, why does this data matter?

The histogram lets you see if a product is trending upward in popularity. It shows you if a seller is running low on inventory. It shows if the seller has recently changed the price.

All of this information can help you make better buying decisions.

The fees and net profit information is of course data you could get for free elsewhere, but it is a nice bonus to have right on hand so you can track it over time.

There you have it. Part one of four.

Let's get into the Jungle Scout Product Database.

The Jungle Scout Product Database

The Jungle Scout Product Database allows you to find products on Amazon based on your desired criteria.

This is a game changer for brands looking to...

Decide if they should bring a competitor to market

Find 3rd party products to source from suppliers

Here is what the database looks like. I will go into each section in more detail.

To use the product database, you will start by choosing your marketplace.

Next, select the categories you'd like to include. If you're a new seller who is still gated in brands, you can use this opportunity to remove them from the list.

If you operate a store with a specific niche you can also refine the search here to just show items that would fit your storefront.

Note: A majority of Amazon sellers simply sell "whatever makes money," and don't niche down. I actually recommend this approach. If you'd like to niche down, you should consider expanding off of Amazon and creating your own website entirely. These are not mutually exclusive options either. You can run an Amazon storefront that sells anything that makes money AND create niche websites serving more targeted audiences.

Next, you will set as many filters as you want.

The more filters you use, the better.

Remember, you don't need to sell thousands of different products to make a killing on Amazon. Many of the most successful sellers actually sell fewer SKUs than you would guess.

Find the big winners and leverage the hell out of them until competition floods the opportunity.

Competitors will ALWAYS flood your opportunity so tools like Jungle Scout are essential to ensure that as one product fades, another takes its place as your cash cow.

You can now view your results and get even more information about each product.

If you want to incorporate other tools, you can export your findings into CSV files and import them into third party softwares like Tactical Arbitrage. Doing this can allow you to find online arbitrage leads through their reverse search feature (this is an advanced method and takes some modification of the sheet to work properly).

Once you find product opportunities, you can get to work finding suppliers or manufacturers. If you have a virtual assistant, provide the list of ASINs to them and let them help locate sources for you.

I recommend that you get on the phone yourself with possible suppliers though and make sure you negotiate the best deals possible before committing to purchasing anything.

You now have the power to see only the products that fit into even the tightest of parameters.

Jungle Scout Niche Hunter

I have shown you how Jungle Scout can help you spot profitable products, but the new Niche Hunter feature can help you find untapped markets that could potentially hold massive opportunities for dozens of new products.

The Jungle Scout Niche Hunter works very similar to the Product Database.

Instead of generating specific ASINs however, it generates niche keywords. This goes way beyond the basic keyword information you would get with a software like Merchant Words.

Most sellers start with specific products in mind when sourcing. The Niche Hunter takes it a step further and starts with the niche opportunities.

Why does this matter?

Like I said at the beginning of this post, there are almost 400 million different products on Amazon! Finding a lucrative niche is much smarter than just searching random products across all niches.

The Niche Hunter shows you how much opportunity exists in specific keywords. Many of these niches are things that you would have NEVER thought of on your own. It really is very, very cool.

To use the Niche Hunter, start by selecting your marketplace and choosing which categories you'd like to focus on.

Next, fill out the niche attributes section. Again, use as many filters as you'd like here.

After you set your attributes, press "search" and you'll receive new niche keyword ideas.

There will be data behind each niche keyword generated.

You can quickly see how much product is being sold in a particular niche and how competitive the market is.

Clicking on the upward arrow shows specific products within the niche.

After a little searching you will start to see huge gaps in the market that you can fill. This is outlined by the "Opportunity Score" on the far right of the results page.

Once you find a niche, you can start searching for products.

You can do this by heading back to the product database OR heading straight to your supplier or manufacturer and seeing if they offer products that would fit into these niches.

If they do, run them through the product tracker and see how they are performing. If they are really doing well, consider jumping in with them yourself OR with a competing product.

Jungle Scout Google Chrome Extension

First, what is a Google Chrome extension?

A Google Chrome extension is a software that works within the Google Chrome browser. The Jungle Scout Chrome extension works directly on Amazon.com.

The extension shows you TONS of information about the products on the page you're on. It is "click button easy."

Note: If for some reason you aren't using Google Chrome already, you should be. Amazon sellers have a massive amount of extensions that can improve their product sourcing. Check out this article if you want to see some of these product sourcing extensions in more detail. Extensions aside, Chrome is just the best browser out there.

After you install the extension, a Jungle Scout icon will appear in your browser bar (to the right of the search bar).

To use the extension, simply navigate to any page on Amazon.

Keep in mind, the extension works on the same marketplaces as the software does. The supported marketplaces are USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, India, Italy, Mexico and the UK.

The extension quickly analyzes all of the products on the page and provides information directly on the page.

You can easily export the findings or share them with your team.

You can also see the associated keywords on any page.

The Chrome extension is possibly the most popular feature for the entire Jungle Scout software suite. It can be purchased separately or as part of the full suite.

Can Jungle Scout Help with Wholesale, Retail Arbitrage and Online Arbitrage Sourcing?

The answer is "yes" to wholesalers and "kind of" to arbitrage sellers.

It is most popular with sellers who are bringing their own products to market, its functionality is not limited to them.

Note: When I say, "their own," I am referring to both their own manufactured items and products that they are private labeling from overseas (usually China). ​

Wholesalers can use the product database to find products that would be profitable to sell and then use that information to locate suppliers. Knowing the competition that exists already and how much a product is generating in revenue per month is critical to making product sourcing decisions for wholesalers.

Jungle Scout Alternatives

If you read this blog you know I do my best to remain unbiased and fair. I obviously love Jungle Scout and think it is the best tool for Amazon product research for private label products, but there are other tools that can generate similar results.

Here are the closest softwares that you will find to Jungle Scout alternatives.

If you decide against Jungle Scout, ASINSpector Pro is your next best option for product research.

ASINSpector Pro is a Chrome based software that lacks the robust suite of features that you get with Jungle Scout, but it is more than capable of providing a mass amount of data that can aid in product decisions.

Jungle Scout Alternative #2: AMZTracker

AMZTracker has been on the market for awhile and it is underrated in my opinion.

They have a free tool that attempts to compete with the Jungle Scout and ASINSpector Pro Chrome extensions, called Unicorn Smasher. While it is cool, I have found that the data is much less accurate than Jungle Scout and I don't actively recommend it.

Jungle Scout Pricing

Jungle Scout has a number of pricing options.

I highly recommend that if you do sign up you pay annually. You're going to save 30% right off the top of the bill.

Jungle Scout Training Webinar

Here is a training webinar I did with Greg Mercer of Jungle Scout back in 2016. Enjoy!

Additional (FREE) Resources from Jungle Scout!

The team at Jungle Scout has created a ton of free content and a couple neat web tools for Amazon sellers.

Here are some of the best freebies from Jungle Scout!

bar-chart

[Software] Sales Estimator. This is a popular and FREE web tool that lets you see how many of an item should be selling based on category and sales rank. It isn't perfect, but it's a good resource to have handy. Bookmark this link!

Nate McCallister

Nate is the founder and main contributor of EntreResource.com. He is a lifestyle entrepreneur who spends his time building businesses and raising his two kids Sawyer and Brooks with his beautiful wife Emily. His main interests include copywriting, economics and piano.